Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill (2016)

It's 1959 in a seedy bar in Philadelphia, and Billie Holiday is giving one of her last performances interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music 4 months before her death.

Audra McDonald brought her Tony award-winning performance as jazz icon Billie Holiday to HBO as part of this special broadcast of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill.

The Broadway show was filmed before a live audience at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans. The original mounting of the show opened at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre in April 13, 2014.

The filmed performance was directed by Lonny Price and originally produced on Broadway by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Jessica Genick, and Will Trice.

The show aired on HBO and is available to stream online.

Directing:

• Lonny Price

Writing:

• Lanie Robertson

Stars:

• Audra McDonald
• David Michael Cefalu
• Katie Lynn Cotaya

Release Date: 2016-03-12

7.3/10

• Country: US
• Runtime: 97